Rocker Switch Panel

[mcmatt75]

Just towed home a new Sea Chaser 23LX. Looking forward to expanding my fishing to saltwater in the winter in SW Florida.

Just hooked up the batteries, and I got a surprise. When I flip the rocker switches on the dash panel (lights, aerators, pumps, accessories), several of them cause one or more others to light up. First time I seen this one in 30+ years of boat ownership. Thoughts? Dealer is 1500 miles away, so is this is fixable without them, that's a better deal.

Thanks

 

[skuhleman]

Are the individual items actually coming on? Or just the visible light for the switches.

 

[dingbat]

Just towed home a new Sea Chaser 23LX. Looking forward to expanding my fishing to saltwater in the winter in SW Florida.

Just hooked up the batteries, and I got a surprise. When I flip the rocker switches on the dash panel (lights, aerators, pumps, accessories), several of them cause one or more others to light up. First time I seen this one in 30+ years of boat ownership. Thoughts? Dealer is 1500 miles away, so is this is fixable without them, that's a better deal.

Thanks

Same thing happened to me several years ago. Got lucky and found it straight off.

Turned out to be the bilge pump shorted to ground. Was back feeding current to the helm via a short in the float switch. Actuating a switch simply opens up a secondary path to ground thru that switch

 

[ahicks]

Pull all the fuses, turn it on, and replace one fuse at a time. That should reveal the problem circuit....

 

[mcmatt75]

Same thing happened to me several years ago. Got lucky and found it straight off.

Turned out to be the bilge pump shorted to ground. Was back feeding current to the helm via a short in the float switch. Actuating a switch simply opens up a secondary path to ground thru that switch

Thanks. I will take a look. Hope it's that easy; access is tight.

 

[mcmatt75]

Pull all the fuses, turn it on, and replace one fuse at a time. That should reveal the problem circuit....

Will try that. Thanks

 

[bruceb58]

My bet is you have one or more bad grounds and you are picking up a sneak path ground through some of the indicator lights.

 

[QBhoy]

So sometimes these are linked together with a source to provide the backlighting to the switch. They may have gotten it slightly wrong doing this and causing your issue. They meant to light up with a feed when either of ignition or nav lights turned on...with mine anyway. This is done by a common feed to a pin on the back of switch that’s there for doing this. May have some wires crossed...literally.

 

[bruceb58]

So sometimes these are linked together with a source to provide the backlighting to the switch. They may have gotten it slightly wrong doing this and causing your issue. They meant to light up with a feed when either of ignition or nav lights turned on...with mine anyway. This is done by a common feed to a pin on the back of switch that’s there for doing this. May have some wires crossed...literally.

The switches all get a ground to allow the switch to light. The output of the switch is what goes to the positive side of the light. If the rocker switches that are turned off, have their indicator lights turn on, that's a sneak path to ground through the light.

 

[QBhoy]

The switches all get a ground to allow the switch to light. The output of the switch is what goes to the positive side of the light. If the rocker switches that are turned off, have their indicator lights turn on, that's a sneak path to ground through the light.

Probably a bit late at night for me to think clearly after reading this. Sure you’re likely right...but just know that I have rocker switches with 5 pins. Took me by surprise. They can be configured to have just the usual set up for off and on. Or off and on with illumination when on...or all of the previous but with backlight when either nav lights turned on or ignition turned on. By ways of a jumper type and common positive feed to each.